Sunsets over Midgar
by Gaia'schild
Summary: Waiting for Tifa to wake up after being attacked by Kadaja's Gang, Cloud muses on whether or not he deserves this family who has accepted him. Movie-Verse ACC.


Sunsets over Midgar were never pretty…too many buildings and too much smog to really appreciate the beauty. Back in Nibelheim where he grew up, it was easy to appreciate a sunset because you could see them, at least until they sank over the mountains but that wasn't the point. Standing at the window waiting for Tifa to regain consciousness he realized how much he missed sunsets at home-those sunsets when Tifa and him would climb a tree to watch them while sharing a stolen treat. He missed them.

Tifa he sighed. She was hurt because of him, because he was cowardly and couldn't deal with the hurt that Aerith's death, no, sacrifice, had left behind. So he had run away from his problems leaving Tifa to take care of herself along with the orphans, but his problems had found and almost killed her. A rising feeling of anger swelled as he thought about the three Silver Haired Men that Reno and Rude had told him were most likely the people who had beat up Tifa. They would pay for hurting his girl.

His girl! When did he start thinking Tifa was his girl? It made sense, Aerith was dead and he did live with her sometimes but what if she got hurt because of him. Wait, she already was. What if she got hurt more often? She could take care of herself, and she would tell him that straight to his face he realized. She was strong.

It was dark by the time Tifa suddenly woke up. She looked about in confusion as her eyes took in her's and Cloud's room. Last she knew she had been laying in Cloud's arms in Aerith's church. Marlene had been there, until that weirdo had come, where was she now?

"Reno and Rude are out looking," Cloud answered her unspoken question. He walked over to his bed and sat down, not really looking at her but in her direction, typical Cloud.

"You, have Geostigma, don't you?" she asked remembering the cloth she and Marlene had found at the church. He didn't respond.

"You're going to give up and die, is that it?" she questioned disbelievingly.

He looked down in shame; he hadn't wanted anyone to find out. He didn't want to be a burden to anyone; people that took care of him had a tendency of dying. Zach, Aerith, his parents; the list could go on. He knew Denzel had the stigma too and Tifa had to take care of him, but he could take care of himself. He was just going to die really anyway. There was no cure.

Tifa turned around on her bed to face the window, "so it is". She recognized that look in his eyes, the resignation to a fate he couldn't control and really didn't want to change.

He reminded her of the thought that plagued him and drove him into a despaired freedom of sorts. "There is no cure." That simple fact both crushed him and lifted him up. Denzel and hundreds of other young children would die and that was depressing, but at the same time he could be reunited with those people that he had failed and beg for their forgiveness. He deserved and wanted to die, the others didn't need to, they needed to live.

"Yeah, but that's not stopping Denzel is it?" she turned back to him trying to argue some sense past all that thick blond hair. "Don't run. We can fight it together." She wanted him to stay, no needed him to stay. "We can help each other, I know we can." Silently she thought back to AVALANCHE, their strange family, and the promise they had made before spiting apart_. No matter what, if one of us is in trouble, we help them. All of us. _ "I guess that only works for real families."

"Tifa. I'm not fit to help anyone." He knew it was true. He just messed things up; lives, family, happiness, they were all in danger when he was around. "Not my family, not my friends. Nobody,"

"Dilly dally shilly shally." Cloud's head slowly perked up at Tifa's nonsense noises. "Dilly Dally Shilly Shally!" What was she trying to say to him?

"I think she wants you to move on man." H hadn't noticed Reno and Rude come back in, he jerked around in surprise as Reno answered his thought.

"Did you find them?" Tifa questioned excitedly.

"No. Only a witness, Kadaj's Gang, took the kids," Reno replied while looking at Cloud as if to say this is your fault. It was in some way, they two had come to Cloud looking for help to take down the gang but he had refused.

"Where are they?" He was going to get them back. Denzel and Marlene's disappearance was his fault entirely.

"They're at their base now. The Forgotten City." Rude spoke up, knowing that Cloud was going to go after them.

"I'm going after them," he warned the Turks as he stood up grabbing his Buster Sword. He made it to the door before Tifa got up and ran to him holding his arm.

"And I'm coming with you," she smiled slightly. "You'll need another pair of hands if the Gang's there."

"No," he replied. "I need you here in case they escape back home or more children are taken. Can you two help with that?" he looked over to Reno.

"Yeah, Sure. Not like, we have anything else to do, yo."

He nodded and left the room. He made his way through the bar and over to where Rude must have parked his Fenrir and started it up. Driving away he made a promise to himself. If they got out of this alive he would convince Tifa to take the two children to Nibelheim to see a proper sunset. Marlene would like that, she loved drawing them. He wouldn't go, he didn't deserve to, but he would watch over things at home until they returned.


End file.
